Hey NBC: Fire Tucker Carlson Now!
| By halperindavid - Aug 9th, 2005 at 12:14 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
My good friend John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace U.S., is calling on GE/NBC/MSNBC to fire bow-tied brat Tucker Carlson, host of “The Situation.” Carlson’s crime? Offensive, obnoxious remarks. Having myself worked to defend Greenpeace’s right to free speech and protest in Miami, Dallas, and elsewhere, why do I agree that Carlson should be penalized for his words? Because there’s a difference between the government censoring or criminalizing speech, and a journalistic enterprise exercising sound editorial judgment. MSNBC, having already edited “The Situation” out of primetime (and pitted it against awesome Carlson antagonist Jon Stewart at 11 pm), should now edit out Carlson completely by giving him the boot.
What did Carlson say? Here’s the transcript, from June 22:
CARLSON: I am objectively pro-France. You know, France blew up the Rainbow Warrior, that Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbor in the '80s. And I've always respected them...
MADDOW: That made you like them?
CARLSON: Yes. Yes. It won me over.
Fascinating. Carlson breaks with his party and praises France -- solely because France once blew up a civilian ship!
Passacantando has pursued NBC executives, urging them to fire Carlson for his endorsement of an act of violence that resulted in death – an act John labels “terrorism.” Passacantando noted that when French intelligence agents blew up the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, Fernando Pereira, the ship’s photographer, drowned below deck, leaving behind two young children. Two of the agents involved were convicted in New Zealand and sent to prison, and an international tribunal found France liable for $8.1 million in damages. The Rainbow Warrior had been protesting and attempting to thwart French nuclear weapons “test” explosions in the atmosphere.
In response to Passacantando’s efforts, he eventually received a call from Tucker Carlson himself. But instead of being contrite or conciliatory or even rational, Carlson was angry, defiant, and just plain mean. Here’s a report of the call, based on Passacantando’s notes:
[Carlson] insisted that the French government’s action was “vandalism,” not terrorism, adding that “vandalizing the ship was impressive on France’s part.” He referred to Greenpeace acts of civil protest, such as blocking entrances as “vandalism,” but he declined to respond when asked whether he would consider Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi to be vandals. He also declined to answer when asked whether he was proud of what he said and whether he would say it again. Instead, he concluded the call by saying, “I am not hanging up. I am returning the handset to the cradle.”
I know from John’s notes, which I reviewed, that Carlson also tossed him this gratuitous insult: “Unlike you, I’m a busy man!” Ah, too busy to respond: the last refuge of scoundrels.
MSNBC should unbusy Tucker by tossing him out, now. Perhaps through conscience, editorial judgment, or, most likely, concern about low ratings, MSNBC will make that choice soon.
What did Carlson say? Here’s the transcript, from June 22:
CARLSON: I am objectively pro-France. You know, France blew up the Rainbow Warrior, that Greenpeace ship in Auckland Harbor in the '80s. And I've always respected them...
MADDOW: That made you like them?
CARLSON: Yes. Yes. It won me over.
Fascinating. Carlson breaks with his party and praises France -- solely because France once blew up a civilian ship!
Passacantando has pursued NBC executives, urging them to fire Carlson for his endorsement of an act of violence that resulted in death – an act John labels “terrorism.” Passacantando noted that when French intelligence agents blew up the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, Fernando Pereira, the ship’s photographer, drowned below deck, leaving behind two young children. Two of the agents involved were convicted in New Zealand and sent to prison, and an international tribunal found France liable for $8.1 million in damages. The Rainbow Warrior had been protesting and attempting to thwart French nuclear weapons “test” explosions in the atmosphere.
In response to Passacantando’s efforts, he eventually received a call from Tucker Carlson himself. But instead of being contrite or conciliatory or even rational, Carlson was angry, defiant, and just plain mean. Here’s a report of the call, based on Passacantando’s notes:
[Carlson] insisted that the French government’s action was “vandalism,” not terrorism, adding that “vandalizing the ship was impressive on France’s part.” He referred to Greenpeace acts of civil protest, such as blocking entrances as “vandalism,” but he declined to respond when asked whether he would consider Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi to be vandals. He also declined to answer when asked whether he was proud of what he said and whether he would say it again. Instead, he concluded the call by saying, “I am not hanging up. I am returning the handset to the cradle.”
I know from John’s notes, which I reviewed, that Carlson also tossed him this gratuitous insult: “Unlike you, I’m a busy man!” Ah, too busy to respond: the last refuge of scoundrels.
MSNBC should unbusy Tucker by tossing him out, now. Perhaps through conscience, editorial judgment, or, most likely, concern about low ratings, MSNBC will make that choice soon.
!
Comments are closed for this post.
I still enjoy watching Tucker on TV because he continues to be an ass and ebarass himself. I can't remeber where it was but I saw a poll that showed he was the least respected/tolerated something like that, pundit on TV.
And he wears a bowtie so hes a nerd.
Severing Severin, who isn't interested in reporting the facts, is in the best interests of the network.
That said, applauding an act of terrorism is unconscionable -- and the intentional targetting of civilians for bombing in a time of peace for political ends generally qualifies as terrorism.
There were a million better ways for the French government to resolve the situation; they chose the totalitarian way. A terrible decision on their part.
Tucker Carlson should be fired for this -- I'm normally not a fan of firing people for what they say on TV (left, right, or center), but applauding terrorism crosses the line, the same line crossed when Michael Savage was fired from MSNBC for wishing AIDS upon a gay man, or when Ann Coulter was fired from the National Review for advocating the forceful conversion of the Middle East to Christianity.
1) Running with his words as part of that "Who Shares Your Values" thing -- doesn't really help. The great part about the punchy quotes used from Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, et al., is that they require no explanation. The Rainbow Warrior incident is by no means fresh in everyone's mind, much less people my age.
2) However, imagine a similar campaign going something along these lines:
"Tucker Carlson - Fired for applauding the murder of peaceful liberal protestors."
"Ann Coulter - Fired for demanding that we forcefully convert the entire Middle East to Christianity.
Michael Savage - Fired for telling gays that he hopes they get AIDS and die."
If Tucker Carlson becomes one more in a series of conservative pundits to be let go due to an awful remark, it becomes a pattern, a bona-fide meme that we can push: "Extremist conservative pundits are out of control."
My concern isn't really that Carlson does any harm in being on the air; I don't buy the idea that far-right ideas (even stupid ones) 'poison' our media or our culture, and that getting them off the air solves something. Not to mention that Tucker, a professional media creature, would be back on the air in no time.
The idea, instead, is to make the right-wing punditry an object of disgust for the average American.
Think of how Howard Dean was targetted in the last election. With their strategy of painting him as a man who'd say any crazy thing, they didn't want his voice to be silenced -- they wanted him to keep on talking, to establish the pattern in the minds of average American voters. Same deal here.
Tucker, himself, isn't really the issue. His firing, however, would provide some serious ammunition for a full-frontal attack on how America views the right-wing punditry.
A well placed boot could truly address a multitude of sins.
See an NYC weekly newspaper used to run a column that invited different writers to tell stories about cities they'd lived in. Well, Carlson contributed to it. He wrote about Washington DC.
Here's where it gets creepy:
He told a story (to illustrate his point about how polite people in DC are), about an incident that took place when he and his then roommate were driving to work. They saw a woman driving alone with a pro-choice bumper sticker on her car. Well Carlson's roommate stuck his head out the window to tell off for it. And she told him where he could stick it.
Well, when the light changed, they actually chased her. For upward of a half hour they scared the crap out of this poor woman who probably thought she was going to be raped and murdered by two men. Finally, they let up (because they weren't really looking to do anything to her. They just wanted to put a scare in her. Or so Carlson says).
And Carlson thought this story was noteworthy only because people politely got the fuck out of the way when they saw a car chase.